Poetry donnybrook

[Audrey Coward]

O Ralph I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting you.
Your bantering and humour makes me want to check my-mail often. I want to
know why the poet laureate"position "doesn't come with a set of rules, a job
description, a box on the org chart and report to a president .
Maybe I missed some of the 1947 rules beacause not only didn't I have
e-mail, I couldn't read or comprehend rules. When I aged sufficiently to
understand rules,
 I always had more fun breaking them.

Audrey Coward
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph Copleman" <rcopleman at COMCAST.NET>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 9:10 AM
Subject: Poetry donnybrook


> Look,
>
> When I enter a poetry contest that I'm told will be decided by vote, I
don't
> expect people to change the rules after the entry period has concluded.
> That's like, I dunno, changing the Law of Two Feet into, perhaps, the Law
of
> One Arm and One Leg midway through an open space meeting!  Vote me up or
> vote me down.  Either way, I can take it.
>
> Second, the official rules of the OS Poetry Contest (you could look this
up
> anywhere you want to find it) say quite unequivocally that a person may
> submit a poem after the entrance period has been closed.  I made this rule
> myself when I organized the first contest back in 1947, so I know it's
true.
> The fact that it's a stupid rule and the fact that when the rule was
> formulated there was no such thing as e-mail should have no bearing on
> whether Harrison's poem may be included.  He's out there suffering
terribly.
> Let the poor guy in already.
>
> (I do, however, propose another new rule based on Harrison's poem.  Any
> entry, I should think, needs to have more than 50% of its content come
from
> the submitting poet, not Rene Descartes.  (I mean, if HO wins, who gets
the
> prize?  Does he have to share it with the dead guy?  Or what?  I think
this
> rule should also apply to Otto von Bismarck, whom I believe is also dead,
> although more recently, and several other people, too.)
>
> Lastly, voting, like the Law of Two Feet, is more an expression of
> preference, not necessarily a judgment of quality.  If it were the latter,
I
> would probably never vote.  Have you seen the "quality" of American
> politicians lately?!
>
> So, let's all hurry up and vote for Joelle's poem and get on with getting
it
> on.
>
> Ralph Copleman
>
> P.S. Be careful about subscribing to any of my political opinions.  I live
> in New Jersey (USA), where the saying "Vote early and often" was first
> coined.
>
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